Important colliery village of its time
Local historian CHARLIE STEEL, in his latest feature for ChronicleLive, explores the history of Percy Main in North Tyneside
LYING a mile-and-a-half south west of North Shields town centre, it is likely Percy Main was named after the colliery which belonged to Northumberland’s aristocratic Percy family.
First sunk in 1799, the colliery dropped 247 metres (810 feet) to the renowned Main seam, where the coal was regarded as the best of its kind for household use. As mining developed, the village grew to serve the pit which remained active for almost 100 years until its closure in 1895.
In 1872, it was recorded there were a total of 786 houses with a population of 3,953 persons. The inhabitants worked mainly in the mining industry and also the neighbouring docks and related riverside industries. Wagonways once ran through the village and, as the railway system developed, much of the area around Percy Main became commercial goods and coal sidings feeding the numerous tracks and wagonways leading to nearby staiths and docks. When a passenger service began, Percy Main railway station opened in 1839 and was part of the Newcastle and North Shields Railway. All of the original buildings were demolished when the station was converted for Metro use in 1980.
Most of the sidings were situated to the rear of the former Percy Arms pub, and along with the associated buildings, they existed until 1968 when the site was cleared. Most of this area is now occupied by housing development.
Although the village has been extensively rebuilt, the oldest part is still evident by the sandstone church of St John where the register dates from 1864 and indicate that nearby hamlets of Chirton, New York and Murton were formed into an ecclesiastical parish.
The church was commissioned by the Duke of Northumberland and is currently Grade II listed. The building was designed by Anthony Salvin, an eminent North East church architect. It was re-ordered around 2000, to incorporate use as a community centre. The church now shares a vicar with the nearby St Peter’s Church situated on the Balkwell housing estate.
Old records also refer to Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels which once stood in the village. The nearby St John’s vicarage, built around 1871 on the apex of Wallsend Road and Waterville Lane, was vacated in the early 1950s and converted to become the Redburn public house in 1956.
In 1870-72, a Gazetteer described the village as follows: “Percy, or Percy-Main is a village and a chapelry in Tynemouth Parish, Northumberland. The village stands on the River Tyne, and on the Newcastle and Tynemouth railway, at the junction of the line to Blyth, 1½ miles west south-west of North Shields, and has a station on the railway and a post office under Newcastle-upon-Tyne, both of the name of Percy-Main.”
■ ■Born in Newcastle, local historian and author, Charlie Steel has spent much of his life living in Monkseaton. With a lifelong interest in the North Tyneside area, he has several published books to his credit. They include Monkseaton Village (Part 1 & 2), Whitley Bay Remembered (Part 1 & 2), North Shields Public Houses, Inns & Taverns’ (Part 1 & 2), and Tynemouth Remembered – all published by Summerhill Books.